Make New Friends And Keep The Old
by blipblopblork
Summary: In a new universe, Rose finds an old friend. Set after the events of season 4.


**Author's Note: I like to think of this as existing in a slight AU where nothing bad happened to Ricky and he and Jake lived happily ever after. Not a major plot point, though. Just sayin'.**

She catches herself constantly searching out familiar faces as she makes her way through the almost-London streets. She can't help it, not really - trying to live her old life again in this new London - or at least something that vaguely resembles her old, stationary, one-planet life, is maddening, stifling now. She misses the TARDIS, she misses the Doctor... her one true Doctor, though she'll reluctantly admit that she and this new fellow are getting on rather well, but now, trapped in this place that looks so much like the city she's always called home, she finds herself missing others as well. People she'd never thought she'd miss - people she hadn't given so much as a second thought to during all of her time travelling with the Doctor.

As she passes the cinema where her primary school used to be, she thinks of Jamie Glastonbury, the boy with the shaggy hair she'd copied from during her year three maths class. As she checks her makeup in the reflection from a shop window, she remembers Suzie Withers, the girl who taught her how to put on eyeliner so it wouldn't smudge. And as she watches a closely cropped brown haircut bob by in the crowd, she realizes just how much she misses...

"Shireen! Shireen! Wait!" Rose would know that hairdo anywhere, even from behind. And it wasn't just the hair - against all odds, the girl had turned when Rose cried out, and a pair of bright brown eyes she hadn't thought about in two years are now staring back at her questioningly. Rose is running now, practically shoving passersby aside to get to her friend.

She comes to a stop and grabs her by the coatsleeve.

"Shireen! Shireen! Is it really you? I'm so glad to see you, you have no idea... oh it's going to sound mad when I tell you but we have so much to catch up on and I can't believe I'm running into you like this and..."

Shireen distentangles herself from Rose's grasp.

"I'm so sorry, but I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone else."

-

Rose claps her hands to her mouth and wills herself not to cry.

"Oh my god, no, I'm sorry. You must think I'm a total nutter. It's just, you look so much like someone I used to know, and I really really thought you were her and," Rose fights back a sniffle, "the worst part is I hadn't even realized I missed her."

Shireen, or not-Shireen, as it would happen, does her best to offer comfort to this complete stranger who has catapulted herself quite suddenly and unexpectedly into her life.

"Hey, hey - don't cry. Uhh, your friend sounds like she must have been pretty special."

Rose tries to smile.

"You are. I mean she is. Was. I don't know. This alternate-universe shite is so confusing." She realizes what she's just said, but she doesn't stop herself. She's rambling now, and if anybody on this godforsaken planet could understand her, it would be Shireen. Err, not-Shireen. Right. "Oh hell, you already think I've just stepped out of the madhouse, nothing I can say can make this any less awkward..." She sucks in a breath. "I grew up in an alternate-universe in a parallel version of London. I think you're this planet's version of my childhood best mate Shireen."

She steels herself for a response, but the fear and disbelief she's expecting never come.

"Really? That's brilliant! Say, do people from your universe like chips?"

-

As it turns out, in this world she's called Nasreen.

They get chips from a small shop around the corner, which Rose is pleased to discover is in every way apparently identical to the one located in her home world. They sit outside at a small metal table and Rose laughs when she realizes that getting chips at a local chippy with her best friend she's known all her life might just possibly be the most surreal thing that's happened to her in a very long time.

Aside from the name change, Nasreen is actually very much like Shireen, even down to the small diamond stud in her nose that Rose had always secretly envied (when she was younger, Rose didn't much fancy needles - although in retrospect, compared to the Sycorax or the Slitheen, a tiny piercing doesn't seem so frightening anymore). There are some small differences, though.

"You're studying geology?! At Cambridge?! You have got to be kidding me!"

Nasreen smiles.

"I take it we weren't very studious in your universe?"

Rose giggles. "Let's just say we weren't exactly known for our good marks and leave it at that."

"Sounds like you were a bad influence on me." Nasreen says, grabbing for one of Rose's chips. Just like Shireen, she eats fast - her own chips are long gone.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Rose flicks a chip at her. "If you were so smart why didn't you, I dunno, tutor me or something?"

Nasreen shrugs.

"Say, if there's a me in your universe, then is there another you in this universe?"

Rose nods, and wolfs down a few more chips.

"She's a dog."

"What?!"

"I know, right? Everybody else gets these quirky human dopplegangers, like gay Mickey, or my dad with the multi-billion dollar company... and mine is a little brown terrier that pisses on the carpet! And I stepped in it!"

Nasreen nearly chokes on her chip.

"Oh my god."

"What?"

Nasreen coughs and sputters. Rose waits impatiently.

"What?!"

"I used to play with that dog!"

"No!"

"Yes! My father used to work for Vitex. One year when I was small, he brought me to the company holiday party at your father's mansion. I didn't know any of the other children, so I just played with the dog. Next thing I knew, I'd been hired as the regular dog-sitter for when your parents went out of town. I can see the resemblance," she jibed.

"Oh, Shireen, you did not just compare me to that mangy little ball of..."

She catches her slip-up, looks mortified, but Nasreen just smiles.

"It's okay, you can call me that. Never did like my real name anyways. Too stodgy. It'll be like a nickname, between friends."

Now it's Rose's turn to smile.

"Friends."

"Well, obviously. After all, I was your childhood best mate."


End file.
